What’s New in Spring Boot 3.0? Key Features, Java 17 Baseline, and GraalVM Support

Spring Boot 3.0 has been officially released, representing the first major revision since 2.0 four and a half years ago, incorporating over 5,700 commits from 151 contributors in the past 12 months. It is the first GA version supporting Spring Framework 6.0 and GraalVM.

Because this is a major version, upgrading existing applications may be more complex. The official migration guide helps upgrade Spring Boot 2.7 applications. If you are on an earlier Spring Boot version, it is recommended to first upgrade to 2.7 before moving to 3.0.

Highlights of the New Version:

1. Java 17 baseline and Java 19 support.

Spring Boot 3.0 requires Java 17 as the minimum version. Users on Java 8 or 11 must upgrade the JDK before developing Spring Boot 3.0 applications. Spring Boot 3.0 runs well and has been tested with JDK 19.

Spring Boot requires GraalVM 22.3 or higher and Native Build Tools Plugin 0.9.17 or higher.

2. Support for GraalVM native images, replacing the experimental Spring Native project.

Spring Boot 3.0 applications can now be compiled into GraalVM native images, offering significant memory and startup performance improvements. This support is a major effort across the Spring portfolio. To start using GraalVM native images…

3. Improved observability through Micrometer and Micrometer Tracing.

4. Support for Jakarta EE 10 with an EE 9 baseline.

The announcement thanks all contributors over the years and highlights that support for Jakarta EE 9 and 10, enhanced observability, and GraalVM support represent a massive team effort, affecting all parts of the Spring product suite.